still broke; sometimes knitting

really, it’s more of a maxi-shawl.

My original plan of pairing the Aestlight shawl with aran-weight wool went south. Not, of course, until I’d practically finished the thing. No photos to document that particular pile of FAIL. The yarn was just too chunky; the shawl was just too big and unwieldy.

All of my various attempts to modify and make work left me with a heap of yarn in awkward lengths. I kept trying out various edgings and combinations: with lace, without lace, a stripe here, a stripe there, edging, no edging. It was tedious and demoralizing in the extreme. I watched a lot of Doctor Who. And grumbled to myself.

In the end, I went for simplicity: another weaver’s wool mini shawl. My first version, I gave a way a while ago to a friend who I thought might need a bit of extra warmth over the winter. So this one would be for me.

After lots and lots of lovely, if deadly dull, garter stitch — most of which was completed on the plane ride back to New Jersey — I had a shawl. Not before I was about ready to die from boredom, but still. I got it finished. And, in the process, rediscovered the wonders of the spit splice. This yarn is so tweedy and wooly, the spit was more of an accessory than an essential, but it made me feel better to add an extra binding agent.

My only modification was the cast-on edge: instead of just casting on the requisite number of stitches (29), leaving a rather raw, if stretchy edge, I knit up a garter band (three stitches, same as the number of edge stitches) and then picked up the 29 stitches from that edge — à la the usual shawl technique. To keep the top edge consonant with the side edges, at three stitches apiece, I did not slip the first stitches of each row as directed by the pattern.

Although this is only a small detail, it’s in these kind of fiddly little modifications that I actually notice how much experience has improved my technique and just general awareness of possibilities. I thoroughly enjoyed my silly 29-stitch pick-up exercise. The russian bind off ate up the remaining yarn and provided a nice stretchy edge.

I used up just about every inch of three skeins of Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran (lewis blue + rust) on size US11/8.00mm needles, which resulted in a pretty good sized shawl: 46 inches across the top, 18.5 inches down the center. More details here.

Up next: an Aestlight shawl using fingering-weight wool. It’s working out much better this time around. Fingers crossed.